2023 Short Film Showcase
Dirty Rotten Tofu and the Gohan Girls
Saturday, March 11th, 2023
Denver Sie FilmCenter
Synopsis of Film:
In 1880’s Colorado, we meet the three western heroines, Sushi, Mochi, and Ume on the run from bounty hunters hired by their former captor, Tofu, a ruthless crime boss in Denver’s Chinatown. They realize there is only one way to permanently gain their freedom-- kill Tofu.
The overconfident Sushi directs Mochi and Ume to keep the bounty hunters busy while she returns to Denver to kill the dirty, rotten sonavabitch. Mochi looks upon this plan skeptically. Ume, who can’t speak, angrily rides away on her horse in disgust.
Will this plan succeed, fail or ultimately kill them all?
In 1880’s Colorado, we meet the three western heroines, Sushi, Mochi, and Ume on the run from bounty hunters hired by their former captor, Tofu, a ruthless crime boss in Denver’s Chinatown. They realize there is only one way to permanently gain their freedom-- kill Tofu.
The overconfident Sushi directs Mochi and Ume to keep the bounty hunters busy while she returns to Denver to kill the dirty, rotten sonavabitch. Mochi looks upon this plan skeptically. Ume, who can’t speak, angrily rides away on her horse in disgust.
Will this plan succeed, fail or ultimately kill them all?
About DIRTY ROTTEN TOFU AND THE GOHAN GIRLS
This a story about people who are often left out of history or reduced to background characters. People of color and those with a diverse range of gender identities and sexualities faced not only the same challenges as other pioneers but the additional threats and dangers from a society that saw them as “other” or less than human. Yet they exemplied everything we imagine heroic and inspiring about the Old West and takes it one step deeper. “Dirty Rotten Tofu and the Gohan Girls” takes place in Denver, Colorado’s 1880’s Chinatown when “Yellow Peril” or fear and hatred of the Chinese was reaching its peak. Asians were seen as less than human and Asian women property to be used and discarded. This novel western features three unique female action heroines: Sushi, Mochi and Ume who shoot, fight and dispatch foes with the best of them as they face impossible odds in a world that considers them little more than property to be used and discarded. The antagonist, Tofu, is the ultimate outsider, a slick, literate and tenacious rogue challenging the status quo. June Inuzuka (writer/director) drew from her love of films like “Star Wars, “The Hateful Eight” and anime such as “Trigun” and “Cowboy Bebop” to create the vision of a western bar room that must have existed but has never been seen. Colorful characters like “Horrible Death”, an Asian woman who is hired killer, or the large and foreboding “Noodles,” represent people society excludes, fears or renders invisible. The characters names are anime inspired which adds an additional layer of fun and modern Japanese influences to the film. At the same time, the writer’s background as an historian grounds the film and gives it substance.
This a story about people who are often left out of history or reduced to background characters. People of color and those with a diverse range of gender identities and sexualities faced not only the same challenges as other pioneers but the additional threats and dangers from a society that saw them as “other” or less than human. Yet they exemplied everything we imagine heroic and inspiring about the Old West and takes it one step deeper. “Dirty Rotten Tofu and the Gohan Girls” takes place in Denver, Colorado’s 1880’s Chinatown when “Yellow Peril” or fear and hatred of the Chinese was reaching its peak. Asians were seen as less than human and Asian women property to be used and discarded. This novel western features three unique female action heroines: Sushi, Mochi and Ume who shoot, fight and dispatch foes with the best of them as they face impossible odds in a world that considers them little more than property to be used and discarded. The antagonist, Tofu, is the ultimate outsider, a slick, literate and tenacious rogue challenging the status quo. June Inuzuka (writer/director) drew from her love of films like “Star Wars, “The Hateful Eight” and anime such as “Trigun” and “Cowboy Bebop” to create the vision of a western bar room that must have existed but has never been seen. Colorful characters like “Horrible Death”, an Asian woman who is hired killer, or the large and foreboding “Noodles,” represent people society excludes, fears or renders invisible. The characters names are anime inspired which adds an additional layer of fun and modern Japanese influences to the film. At the same time, the writer’s background as an historian grounds the film and gives it substance.
| Press kit Dirty Rotten Tofu and the Gohan Girls |
June Inuzuka - Writer/Director/Producer
I am currently a writer and filmmaker in Denver, CO. I'm a third generation Japanese American, which means my parents were part of the generation that not only went to war but were also forced into internment camps. My father's family was imprisoned in Gila, Arizona while my mother and her siblings (all American citizens) were stuck overseas in Japan. My identity is grounded in my family history and is a source of inspiration that informs but does not define my work. I’ve had several jobs in my life: a nurse in a county hospital, a struggling waitress trying to write her first novel and a public interest lawyer in Washington DC . As a lawyer I worked on issues important to women, especially Asian women and women of color. However, my most important job was as a stay-at-home mom for fifteen years. I felt it was more important to raise three good human beings than write another Supreme Court brief. After my kids were in school, I attended classes at the Colorado Film School. During that time I wrote, directed and produced my first film, a short documentary, "Dharma Road" which was chosen by the New York Asian International Film Festival as “best-work-in-progress” in 2015. That same year it was nominated as "Best documentary Short" at the Asians on Film Festival and premiered at the Japanese National Museum in Los Angeles. (In case you haven’t figured it out, I’m an emerging filmmaker at seventy.) I see filmmaking as a creative extension of my public interest work and my care and concern for my children and the Asian American community which I consider my home.
I am currently a writer and filmmaker in Denver, CO. I'm a third generation Japanese American, which means my parents were part of the generation that not only went to war but were also forced into internment camps. My father's family was imprisoned in Gila, Arizona while my mother and her siblings (all American citizens) were stuck overseas in Japan. My identity is grounded in my family history and is a source of inspiration that informs but does not define my work. I’ve had several jobs in my life: a nurse in a county hospital, a struggling waitress trying to write her first novel and a public interest lawyer in Washington DC . As a lawyer I worked on issues important to women, especially Asian women and women of color. However, my most important job was as a stay-at-home mom for fifteen years. I felt it was more important to raise three good human beings than write another Supreme Court brief. After my kids were in school, I attended classes at the Colorado Film School. During that time I wrote, directed and produced my first film, a short documentary, "Dharma Road" which was chosen by the New York Asian International Film Festival as “best-work-in-progress” in 2015. That same year it was nominated as "Best documentary Short" at the Asians on Film Festival and premiered at the Japanese National Museum in Los Angeles. (In case you haven’t figured it out, I’m an emerging filmmaker at seventy.) I see filmmaking as a creative extension of my public interest work and my care and concern for my children and the Asian American community which I consider my home.
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